Downslide
by Red Witch
Summary: The Brotherhood are faced with antimutant backlash which changes their outlook. Takes place during 'Uprising'.


**I don't own any X-Men Evolution characters. Sorry. Well I loved 'Uprising' even though there wasn't any scenes with the Brotherhood in it. So I thought I'd write this as my take on what they were doing during this episode. **

**Downslide**

It all started late one night. Lance was dreaming that he was a wealthy superstar. There were several gorgeous women with him in the limo and he happened to look out the window. There was Kitty looking at him. Just as he was about to tell the driver to do something he was shaken awake. "Toad!" Lance groaned. "What is it?"

"Lance wake up! Wake up! We got trouble!" Todd whined. "There's a bunch of guys coming up the driveway and I don't think they're here to make a house call yo!" He hopped out to wake up Pietro.

"Wha…" Lance looked outside the window. It took him a full second to realize that there were four of them armed with rifles and bats. "Oh man…" 

He ran downstairs with Todd. "I was just thinking of stuff," Todd kept babbling. "I couldn't sleep and I was looking out the window and I saw these guys drive up and I saw…" He was interrupted by a brick being thrown through a nearby window. "Yikes!" 

Lance didn't think as he swung open the door. Fred was already outside and he had taken the rifles away from the intruders. "GUNS ARE BAD!" He roared as he crumpled them up into little balls. 

"Get lost you fat freak!" One of them hit him with a baseball bat. Of course the bat broke against Fred's side. This only made Fred very angry.

"Excuse me?" His face got red. "Did you just try to whack me with a stupid bat? I'm the Blob! You can't take me out with that!" 

Apparently the message was not understood. Another thug tried to whack Fred with a bat but it was yanked out of his hands by Todd's long tongue. "You're out!" Todd spat some goo in his face. 

"This'll take care of you freaks once and for all!" The lead punk snarled and took something out. 

Lance's eyes widened as one of them threw a homemade Molitov cocktail at the house. "NO!" 

"I believe this is yours!" Pietro grabbed the bomb and threw it in the car before it exploded.

"My car!" The lead punk shouted. They then looked at the Brotherhood in terror. 

"Do you have any idea how stupid that was?" Lance snarled. "You wake us up in the middle of the night and try to attack us armed with guns and bats and bombs? Don't you norms know those things can't hurt us?"

"But we can hurt you…" Fred pounded his fist into his palm. 

"Let's get out of here!" One of them screamed.

"GET LOST!" Lance roared as he sent a fissure straight at them. The punks raced away as they tried not to fall into the crater. "AND DON'T COME BACK IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!" 

"What the hell is going on?" Wanda shouted as she ran outside in her bathrobe. 

"Some of the local dipwads tried to burn our house down!" Lance snapped. "Good thing you couldn't sleep Toad." 

"Burn the house?" Wanda gasped. "You're kidding?"

"I wish," Lance grumbled.

"I don't believe it!" Wanda gasped. "Why would they attack us?"

"Because we're mutants," Lance told her. "They've always hated us in Bayville." 

"Yeah but they've never been this bold before!" Pietro said. He then saw a police car pull up the driveway. "Oh great! **Now** the cops show up!" 

Two police officers got out of the vehicle. "Is there anything going on here?" One asked.

Lance looked around at the broken window, the destroyed weapons and the car burning on the lawn. "Oh no," He said sarcastically. "Just another quiet night at the Brotherhood house! Everything's **peachy keen**!" 

"Looks like you had some trouble here," The other cop said.

"You must be a detective," Pietro folded his arms. "We were just having a nice quiet evening minding our own business when some losers decide to take us on and try to blow us up! For no reason!" 

"Did you have to create such a disturbance?" The first cop snapped. 

"Hey we got a right to protect ourselves!" Lance snapped. "Next time somebody tries to kill us we'll be a lot quieter." 

After a few more brunt questions the officers then left with promises that they would 'keep an eye out' for any more troublemakers. "Yeah right," Pietro scoffed as they left. "And they were **such** a big help this time!" 

"You think they'll come back?" Wanda asked. 

"Not unless they think that we've got a stash of doughnuts in the house," Pietro said.

"I meant the guys who tried to torch our house genius!" Wanda snapped. 

"I don't think so," Lance sighed. "But maybe one of us should stay on a lookout for the rest of the night. Just in case. I'll do it."

"I'll stay up with ya," Todd offered as they went back in the house. "I'm not really in the mood to sleep anyhow."

"Yeah it's not like we have anywhere important to go tomorrow," Fred shrugged as he lumbered into the living room. 

"Man I knew there were some jerks in this town but…" Wanda said as she let out a brief shiver. 

"What's got them so up in arms **this **time?" Pietro asked. "Nobody complained this much since we came out!" 

"They would have never dared to act like this if Father were still alive," Wanda grumbled. "He'd have taught them a lesson." 

"Yeah well he's not," Pietro said. "And as usual we're on our own!" 

"Anyone want some coffee?" Wanda asked. 

"For once coffee sounds like a great idea," Lance sighed. 

None of them could sleep. The individuals who had disturbed them didn't return but by later that afternoon an entire crowd of people were outside. But this time they weren't there to talk to them. Before the Brotherhood knew it the police were setting up a barricade all along the house. 

The mood was tense inside the house. The curtains were all down but that still couldn't stop the angry voices of the protestors outside. None of them dared to look out of the house openly. Wanda took a quick peek through one of the cracks. "They've been out there all day and half the night," She said. "Don't people in this town have anything better to do than to hang around on our lawn and yell at us?"

"Apparently not," Pietro said.

"Geeze who would have thought that we'd be actually glad to have the cops around for a change?" Todd grumbled. 

"Yeah it's nice of them to try and protect us," Fred nodded.

"Protect us my foot," Lance told them. "What they want to do is keep us from trashing them! If any one of those losers out there so much as puts a foot over that line so help me…" 

"I knew things would get bad for us, but I had no idea things could get this bad!" Pietro said. "I hate this! I feel like I'm a prisoner in my own house!" 

"Can't even sleep at night anymore without people hassling us!" Lance hit the wall with his fist. "Man I hate this town!" 

"Yeah and there's nothing good on TV but how much everybody hates mutants," Fred said as he changed the channel. Todd was sitting on a beanbag nearby watching it as well. "At least we ain't alone. There's an even bigger mob over by the Institute." 

"Turn it off Blob," Lance groaned.

"There's nothin' else to do," Fred told him. "It's not like we can take a walk outside or something!"

"Since when do you do any exercise other than stuffing your fat face?" Pietro asked.

"Since I discovered my new hobby, how to make Pietro Pretzels!" Fred made a fist at him. "Want a demonstration?" 

"Will you two quit it!" Wanda snapped. "This is no time to be fighting amongst ourselves!" 

"Yeah we got enough people who want to fight us," Lance grumbled. "Things were a lot simpler when we only had to worry about the X-men." 

"Hey Daniels just trashed Duncan's car!" Todd told them he pointed to the television. "It's on the news!" 

"Really? Good for him!" Fred nodded in approval.

"Evan's back?" Pietro asked. He snapped his fingers. "Darn. I should have known it was too good to last." 

"I hate to say this but at least someone's taking a stand around here," Lance growled. "Even if it is an X-Man."

"An **Ex-**X-Man," Pietro pointed out. 

"Coming from a former Acolyte that's not exactly a put down," Todd told him. "I mean now that you guys don't have a leader no more…Hey! When was the last time you heard from the other guys?" 

"Well the metal guy, Colossus called me the other day and kept asking me if I knew anything about his family, which of course I didn't," Pietro said. "I tried to bring Gambit and Pyro here you know, for extra muscle."

"I take it that didn't exactly go according to plan," Lance asked. 

"Gee how did you ever guess? Gambit called me a few French names and laughed at me," Pietro grumbled. "And that maniac Pyro said he was too busy burning things to hang around Bayville and he laughed. Or did he say he was too busy burning down Bayville and laughed **while** he was doing it? His cell phone was breaking up with all that static. At least I think it was static. It sounded a lot like something crackling now that I think about it. I know I definitely heard a fire engine in the background…" 

"Oh brother," Lance groaned.

Hours passed and still the crowd did not disperse. "How long are they going to keep standing out there?" Wanda asked. "I mean don't these people have jobs to go to or something in the morning?" 

"Unemployment," Todd remarked. "Apparently that's another thing we mutants are responsible for."

"Along with SARS, the economy, the ozone layer, pollution…" Pietro grumbled. "Boy the media is having a field day trashing us!" 

"Well nothing says great ratings like a mutant," Lance said sarcastically. "Oh look here's a live shot of some guys attacking a bone plated, fire wielding…Bone plated?" He blinked. "Guys…is it me or does that mutant look…familiar?" 

"Evan?" Pietro watched the television. "SINCE WHEN COULD HE DO THAT?" They watched in shock as Evan took on Duncan and his mob. 

"Man Spyke's got game," Todd whistled.

"He does not!" Pietro snapped.

"Uh I beg to differ," Fred pointed to the screen. "Man he was tough enough to beat with bone spikes. Now bone spikes, armor plating and **fire**?" 

"Some people get all the freaking luck," Todd grumbled. 

"Man look at him go!" Lance gasped. "He's outnumbered and he's still trashing them!"

"Yeah but not for long! We should do something to help!" Wanda said.

"Uh yeah," Todd pointed outside. "We should. Right after we get those people outside to get out of the way. Unlike the X-Men we don't have a helicopter or a jet to take off whenever we like!" 

"I hate to admit it," Pietro folded his arms. "But you're right. There's no way we can get past all those people without running into trouble from the cops." 

"Well speak of the devil," Lance pointed as they watched the X-Men show up on screen. They watched the entire fight on the news when suddenly…

"Hey where'd that little kid come from?" Todd yelled. "What's he doing?" 

Before everyone knew it the entire town was blacked out. "WHAT WAS THAT?" Pietro yelled. He grabbed a flashlight and looked outside. "Man the entire city is dark!" 

"Maybe that kid did it!" Fred told them. "Maybe he's a mutant?"

"No Fred, ya think?" Pietro asked sarcastically.

"Hey we got no TV!" Todd yelled. 

"Our lives are in danger and **this** is what you're concerned about?" Wanda snapped at him. 

"Well a guy's gotta have priorities," Todd told her. 

"At least the X-Geeks can't blame this on us!" Lance said. 

The lights came back on again. "Oh thank god!" Todd sighed. "The TV is back!"

"Yeah now you don't have to spend the night doing something meaningful with your life," Wanda said.

"You got that right," Todd grinned as his eyes were glued to the set. 

"I swear if it wasn't for the fact that that thing didn't keep him distracted from me for long periods of time…" Wanda grumbled as she put her head in her hands. "It would be out the window and down the block!" 

"Hey guys! I think the crowd's finally leaving," Pietro looked outside. 

"Yeah maybe they got the message and they'll leave us alone?" Todd asked.

"I doubt it," Lance growled. "They're probably going home to make sure their VCRs still work. They'll be back."

"You think so?" Todd asked.

"I know so," Lance told him. 

"Hey Duncan got arrested!" Todd called out. "Wow that's the best news I've heard all week!"

"Duncan's going to jail!" Fred laughed. "Ha Ha!" 

"Yeah but you'll know he'll be back on the street the next day," Lance told him. "Him and that rich family of his gotta have some kind of lawyer."

"Cops got him for rioting and shooting at a kid," Todd said. 

"A mutant kid," Lance told him. "You honestly think any judge is gonna care about our rights? We got hassled enough by the man when people didn't know what we were! Now…"

"He's right," Pietro frowned. "You know I never really believed half the stuff Magneto said about humans before, but now I'm starting to wonder if he wasn't right after all." 

"We tried to be the good guys," Lance growled. "We tried playing nice. No more. Sooner or later, the Brotherhood is going to take a stand. And heaven help the humans that are in our way." 


End file.
